One month after Adele’s (Loretta Devine) death and many months after the plane crash that changed everything, Grey's AnatomySeason 9, Episode 11: "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" is all about trying. From the patient who is trying to please her husband sexually to the patient who is trying to please her mother in every way to the docs who are just trying to keep moving forward, Seattle Grace-Mercy West isn’t about life or death or wins or losses … it’s about how hard you fight.Now, what you’re fighting for and/or what you’re fighting about … well, that’s a different story for everybody. For Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), it’s about three things: Mer’s pregnancy, Derek’s hand, and the lawsuit. Meredith has officially reached the end of her first trimester (yay!), but she is yet to tell her twisted sister. However, it turns out that her big boobs and growing appetite gave her away, so now it’s just a matter of saying the actual words.As for Derek, he’s busy being called an “old man” and a “bitch” during an intense ping-pong tournament (aka physical therapy for his hand) with the seemingly nice Shane (Gaius Charles). Who knew that all it took for Shane to go into full Smash mode (Friday Night Lights fans?) was an opportunity to assist in the OR?

And then there’s the lawsuit. What would you do if you had $15 million? That’s the question that Derek, Meredith, Cristina (Sandra Oh), and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) are facing right now. With $15 million in each of their pockets, what will they do? Buy a house? A football team? Multiple houses? Multiple football teams? The world is their financial oyster.But you can’t put a price on everything. The plane-crash victims aren’t the only docs who struck gold recently. Alex (Justin Chambers) has a new best friend … a pantsless best friend. Yep, Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Alex have now expanded their friendship resume: Not only do they enjoy fake crying and sneaking their way into hotel rooms, but they also like to place bets on ping-pong matches, drink beer, and not have sex. Despite the fact that Jo bought Alex a couch (sweet, right?), they claim to see each other as brother and sister, and pants or no pants, that’s just not sexy.However, Owen (Kevin McKidd) might disagree. In a horrifyingly embarrassing moment, Owen mistakes a pantsless Jo for Cristina and proceeds to cop a feel. Now that Cristina and Owen are exes, she's moved into Alex’s house, which means they’re back to sneaking around at the crack of dawn. Luckily, Cristina finds the whole incident hilarious. According to her, sex with your ex-husband is way hotter than sex with your husband. Ah, the things we learn from Grey’s.Speaking of sex, Jackson (Jesse Williams) and Stephanie (Jerrika Hinton) are still having it. It seems that Jackson has some very big shoes to fill thanks to the absence of one Mr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), and he’s giving it his best shot. He’s sleeping with his colleagues, he’s taking command over his surgeries in a very cocky way, and he’s even going to Derek for advice. But at the end of the day, nobody can be Mark but Mark (tear). Jackson tells April (Sarah Drew) the truth about Stephanie before she hears it from somebody else, and as sweet as it is, April isn’t quite ready to be friends … considering that all she wants to do is kiss Jackson. Can you blame a girl?

But Jackson isn’t the only Avery struggling with his or her love life. After Richard (James Pickens Jr.) decides to go off sweets, including Catherine (Debbie Allen), he spends the episode ignoring her by locking himself in what Adele always called his “house of horrors.” It’s pretty much just a room full of jars that contain things Richard has removed from people over the years. What some might call a room full of successes, he sees as a reminder of all of the times he failed Adele by putting surgery before his marriage. And when he finally explains to Catherine that he failed Adele when he chose to spend time with her instead of his wife, she simply holds his hand. Like we said, it’s about trying. Richard is trying. Catherine is trying. And the survivors of the plane crash? Yep, they’re trying too. In fact, Callie (Sara Ramirez) organizes a survivor's victory dinner, which quickly turns into more of a drunken, we-can-do-this dinner. Arizona, Callie, Derek, Meredith, and Cristina gather around a table and discuss missing Mark, moving forward, sexting, and the fact that Meredith is pregnant and — get ready for it — happy about it! Talk about moving forward. The one man missing from dinner is not Cristina’s husband. Owen can’t celebrate with the crew because he’s in the middle of a meeting, where he discovers that the insurance isn’t going to pay all the lawsuit money (apparently there’s some loophole about there having been more than two attendings on that plane), and so the hospital has to float the bill. But how does the hospital come up with $60 million? That’s easy: It goes bankrupt. You know, it’s just a thought, but we think it’s going to be very difficult to move forward if there is no Seattle Grace-Mercy West.On that note, here are some other less depressing things that we learned: Bailey (Chandra Wilson) had the least sexy honeymoon ever, Jesus isn’t a fan of vajazzling … but Bokey is (?!), and the “sexy flexy” is a highly dangerous pole-dancing move (particularly if you’re older than 50). Also, a word of advice: Don’t eat your own hair. You’re welcome. And now it’s time to move forward … to next week. We'll see you for the craziness that is Mer’s pregnancy hormones and Arizona’s leg drama!Catch the next new episode of Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday, January 24, 2013, at 9 p.m. ET/PT onABC.Samantha Highfill is a contributing writer to Wetpaint Entertainment. Follow her on Twitter at@samhighfill.